CAIRO — The spokesman for Egypt's interim president is decrying "foreign pressure" in a strongly worded message that appears to indicate Cairo's uneasiness toward a flurry of visits by American, European and Gulf envoys aimed at mediating a standoff with supporters of the ousted president.

Ahmed el-Musalamani, a spokesman for interim president Adly Mansour, told reporters on Tuesday that "foreign pressure has exceeded international standards."

He didn't elaborate.

His comments came a day after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with Khairat el-Shater, a top leader in Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group.

His visit and that of EU and Gulf officials are seen of ways to mediate a standoff between Morsi's supporters, camped out in two sit-ins to protest the July 3 coup, and the government.

Poor seamanship and flaws in keeping watch contributed to a collision between a Navy destroyer and a commercial container ship that killed seven sailors, Navy officials said, announcing that the warship captain will be relieved of command and more than a dozen other sailors will be punished.

Gunnar Birkerts, an internationally acclaimed modernist architect who designed buildings including the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, and the University of Michigan Law Library, has died. He was 92.